The shadow minister for transport visited Reading station on Friday as part of a tour of the flood-hit train line from London.

Labour MP Mary Creagh arrived in the town after visiting Slough to see how commuters are being affected by the recent flooding and subsequent delays to services.

Ms Creagh said: “It’s clear that there is going to be significant disruption for weeks to come, and what we want is much better information for passengers.

“People have been telling me that they have been looking on National Rail Enquiries’ website and everything looks fine and then they arrive at the station and everything is topsy turvy so the passengers need better information.

“The second thing is the companies who are running these affected services need to have better compensation, people are paying a lot of money for very disrupted journeys so we want clarity from the train companies about that.

“People will put up with things if they know when the end is going to be, what they don’t want is the Government saying one thing one day and doing something else the next day.

“Finally we want to see the first class carriages taken out of service for those commuter services, we’ve got to just get people home and into work so it shouldn’t be about first class tickets it should be about getting as many people onto those trains as possible.”

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Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Reading East and Katesgrove councillor Matt Rodda said: “It is very important that senior politicians get a feel for what it is like for people in Reading at the moment and it is good that Mary has come today.

“We are going to be passing on concerns from local people and businesses about the delay, as some people have had half an hour added on to each journey which is a big delay and we want to know how long it is going to last.”

Vicky Groulef, Labour candidate for Reading West, said: “These really are exceptional circumstances, and we are doing all we can to support people who are working from home and those still trying to get into London, and it is clear there is going to be a major mopping up exercise in the next few weeks.”

Mike Katz, head of policy and public affairs at First Group, the company which looks after First Great Western, said: “It was all hands to the pumps this morning, and we have had some great volunteers helping to get passengers going in the right direction. The customers are being really understanding and sensible by only travelling when they need to.

“We are trying our best and giving people plenty of regular updates which I think is key.”